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Development, Field Testing and Commercialization of a Crack and Mechanical Damage Sensor for Unpiggable Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines

This project will complete development of a crack and a mechanical damage sensor. It will undertake the technology transfer tasks necessary to integrate these sensors into the commercial offering through Pipetel Technologies, a company that provides commercial service offering for the Explorer family of robotic devices and addressing the inspection of unpiggable natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines. As part of this effort, the team will perform field demonstrations of these sensors in four different live pipelines using the Explorer 20/26 platform which was commercialized earlier this year and the result of a successful research and development (R &amp; D) program that include previous cofunding and overall support from Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The crack sensor is based on a combined transverse magnetic flux leakage (TMFL) and electro magnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) technology, while the mechanical damage sensor is an optical one. This work will be conducted by a team consisting of NYSEARCH, the research and development sub-organization of the Northeast Gas Association (NGA), and Invodane Engineering (IE), the developer and commercializer of this technology. This project will last (15) months.